Lighted toy railroad station



March 27, 1956 J. L. BONANN O LIGHTED TOY RAILROAD STATION Filed Sept. 16, 1955 INVENTOR SEP LBowmswo B flLf k 26i,

ATTORNEY United States Patent LIGHTED TOY RAILROAD STATION Joseph L. Bonanno, South Orange, N. J., assignor to The Lionel Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application September 16, 1953, Serial No. 380,563

4 Claims. (Cl. 46-226) The present invention relates to toy railroad station platforms and is more particularly directed toward the lighting of such platforms.

The construction herein shown is an improvement over that shown in my prior Patent No. 2,303,072 granted November 24, 1942.

The present invention contemplates the provision of a toy railroad station platform having an insulating base and roof structure, and conducting posts supporting the roof structure, with a lighting unit having terminals adapted to fit the spaced posts and carrying two lamp sockets arranged in series, the unit being a rigid preassembled structure which can be inserted in place during the assembly operations in completing the platform.

The accompanying drawings show, for purposes of illustrating the present invention, one embodiment in which the invention may take form, it being understood that the drawings are illustrative of the invention rather than limiting the same.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the station platform;

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view on the line 2-2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a perspective view at an enlarged scale showing a portion of the lighting unit; and

Figure 4 is a longitudinal vertical section through the lighting unit at an enlarged scale.

In the drawings, the molded insulated base of the station platform is indicated at and three conducting posts at 11, 12 and 13. The upper ends of the conducting posts have pin-like extensions 14 threaded as indicated. The lighting unit employs a relatively long central component 15 in the form of an inverted channel-shaped metal strap, the ends of which are bent down as indicated at 16. These ends are apertured as indicated at 17. The lighting unit also includes two end components 18, 18 in the shape of angles or brackets. The upper horizontal portion of each bracket or end component is provided with a hole 19 to fit about the pin-like extensions 14 and is slitted as indicated at 20 so as to make it possible for these brackets to be clipped on and frictionally grip the extensions on the posts. Lamp socket shell 21 has an inwardly flanged base 22 apertured as indicated at 23. Insulating washers 24 and 25 and a hollow rivet 26 are utilized to secure the strap 15, socket shell 21 and an angle member 18 together as shown in Figure 4. The tubular rivet 26 receives the plunger 27 carrying a central contact 28 for the lamp socket. This plunger is urged outwardly by a spring 28'.

The central strap, two end brackets and socket struc- 2,739,418 Patented Mar. 27, 1956 ture are pre-assembled so that one can place the unit on the posts 11, 12 and 13, and the lamps are then in series so that current can be passed through the lamps when the wiring clips 29 at the bottom of the end posts 11 and 13 are connected into the circuit. The roof 30 is secured in place by the nuts 31 and is held against shifting by the bracket-like extensions 32 on the posts 11, 12 and 13.

The completed station as shown herein may be readily relamped by reaching in under the roof, engaging the lamp bulb and turning it in its bayonet socket. The roof may be gripped to hold the station platform against movement so that there is no tendency to distort the posts or break them loose from the insulating base.

What is claimed is:

l. A lighted station platform for toy railroads comprising an insulating base, two upwardly extending conducting posts carried by the base, the posts being provided with laterally extending roof-supporting brackets and upward, pin-like extensions, a pre-assembled platform lighting unit including a rigid conducting strap, two lamp sockets, each lamp socket having a terminal conductively secured to an end of the strap and an insulated terminal, and two conductive clip members each insulatedly secured to an end of the strap and conductively secured to the other insulated terminal of the corresponding socket, the clip members being frictionally received on the pin-like extensions, lamps in the sockets, and a roof secured on the extensions and covering the lighting unit.

2. A lighted station platform for toy railroads such as claimed in claim 1, wherein the strap has downwardly bent ends against which the bases of the sockets respectively bear, the clips have downwardly bent ends, and an insulating washer is interposed between the end of each clip and the adjacent end of the strap.

3. A toy railroad station platform having spaced, vertical, roof-supporting, conducting posts with pin-like extensions, and a rigid lighting unit detachably secured to the post extensions to span the space therebetween, said unit including two rigid, conducting end components, a central, rigid, conducting component, two lamp sockets each having a shell contact bearing against the central component and a central insulated contact, and means to rigidly and insulatedly secure the said end components to the central component and to conductively secure the central contact of each socket to one of the end components.

4. A toy railroad platform lighting unit comprising a normally horizontal, rigid metal strap with downwardly bent apertured ends, a lamp socket shell having an apertured bottom bearing against the inner face of each of said ends to be under the strap, two conducting end brackets having downwardly bent apertured ends opposite the ends of the strap, insulating washers bearing against the bottom of the lamp socket shell and between the strap ends and bracket ends, hollow conducting rivets passing through the washers and the brackets to secure the brackets to the strap, and center contacts in the socket shells passing through the rivets and contacting the same.

Allen Nov. 6, 1934 Bonanno Nov. 24, 1942 

